Forbes
Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork processor and hog producer, has been making headlines for shutting down plants in three states after a rash of coronavirus cases hit its Sioux Falls, South Dakota operation. Less well known: its Chinese billionaire owner Wan Long, who took a small state-owned meat processing plant and expanded it into a multinational company with more than $24 billion in annual sales. Now, the owner of Nathan’s Famous hot dogs and Cook’s ham is scrambling to contain one of the largest coronavirus hot spots in the U.S.
As of Thursday, 598 Smithfield employees in South Dakota’s Minnehaha County have tested positive for COVID-19, as have 135 people who were not employed by Smithfield but were in close contact with its employees. The total cluster of 733 cases makes up more than half of the state’s total coronavirus cases, which stands at 1,311, according to the South Dakota Department of Health. More
Other Smithfield Foods plant closures in North Carolina and Missouri and Wisconsin.
I’m raising three hogs this year; Berkshire/Mangalitsa cross. The other red meat.
Bacon production threatened. Red alert!
This means no more Nathan’s hot dogs. I was under the impression they were still a small business.
More that half? NO WAY. There are about 20 other cases outside of the SF area. Since most the employees are somalis at smithfield who have the virus, how come is it that it is contained at that plant? Why, if it is so dam contagious, didnt it spread throughout the city?
The plant was visited by its chinese masters back in february, btw.
Today i saw my PT who i’ve been seeing for 2 years. Last year he teased me about being Trumps biggest supporter and kind of mocked his executive orders and Trumps way of governing. He wasnt very sharp on politics but brilliant in other things. We discussed a lot of different subjects. Today he said his eyes have been opened. He clearly sees the removal of our rights and questions what would happen under a different administration, what other rights would be removed. He’s seen the light and its brilliant.
This little piggy went to market,
This little piggy stayed home and practiced social distancing,
This little piggy had Chinese virus,
and this little piggy tested negative,
This little piggy went,
Ow ow ow ow ow ow!
Right into the bacon package.
Hoisted by their own petard!
Smithfield Foods Brands: Smithfield®, Eckrich®, Nathan’s Famous®, Farmland®, Armour®, Farmer John®, Kretschmar®, John Morrell®, Cook’s®, Gwaltney®, Carando®, Margherita®, Curly’s®, Healthy Ones®, Morliny®, Krakus®, and Berlinki®.
I dunno about anybody else, but those names will not be in my household! Something about muzzies prepping the bacon gives me a warm, runny feeling!
On another note, here is a pretty good presentation worth looking at for 3 minutes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PsMqLbCWdM&feature=emb_logo
“You’re going to be surprised at Who is really WHOM.”
And owned by Who.
Even Made in America is not American in Nancy’s Land.
Lots of muzzies in Sioux Falls. I wonder how many of them got the virus?
TRF – Same here, told myself I’ll never eat any of those brands again. As long as Jimmy Dean doesn’t sell out, I’m good to go.
Just run michelle obama through the assembly line. The ChiComms will have enough pig meat to last them for a year.
…there’s a Smithfield’s plant and corporate office in my neck of the woods on OH, and when I used to work a job across the street from it, when we were slow I’d sit outside and count the ambulances because they were TERRIBLE at safety. More modernly, since I’m in the food business, it’s pretty incestuous in that the same labor pool, executives, and contractors in the area rotate through all the food plants at one time or another, and everything I’ve heard from folks that have worked there is they’re crap employers, and the contractors talk about how filthy their machinery is. I don’t know if it was the Nathan’s line, @Tsquared, but one contractor told me when they pulled a hot dog line out to rebuild it, the thing stank the worse the more they got into it because it was loaded up with years worth of festering hot dog bits in various stages of decay and infestation, and that really isn’t uncommon for them. I never paid that much attention to their ownership cause I never personally worked there, so I didn’t know they were Chinese until today, I just thought they sucked.
…but this does explain some things now, like how they can afford it in the first place, and why the Best Buy next door could never get them to stop gassing them out with nuclear-level Imitation SmokeFlavor smells, so the Best Buy just gave up and left…
GET ALL CHINESE OUT OF AMERICAN FOOD,period.
I have evoked the spirit of John Birch.
87 total hospitalizations and 7 deaths in all of South Dakota.
https://doh.sd.gov/news/Coronavirus.aspx#updates
Bacon will soon be $20/lb.
Over half of China’s pigs were supposedly dead with the latest swine virus. So, how much of our U.S. pork has that Chinaman exported to China? And other than the corn shortage several years ago, does that explain the high bacon prices before the ChiCom Bioweapon outbreak began?
Calling all you flyover country farm reporters…
I stopped eating much bacon after the prices sky rocketed after the last shortage with the swine flu. The prices of other pork products returned to normal levels eventually but the producers realized that the consumer would still buy bacon at elevated prices so it stayed there. I will buy some during tomato season for my BLT’s but I pretty much go without the rest of the year. I used to always be able to find 1 lb. pkgs 2 for 5 dollars years ago. Now you generally pay that for one pkg and most of the time its 12 oz. People I guess really love their bacon.
TRF
APRIL 20, 2020 AT 6:52 PM
“… Something about muzzies prepping the bacon gives me a warm, runny feeling!”
…funny you should mention that…we didn’t have Muzzie employees at my MRE plant until right around Operation Iraqi Freedom, then we were inudated with them…and they WANTED to work on the Pork Chow Mein line for some reason…far as I know, there was no tampering and I didn’t hear about a bunch of sick soldiers later as I surely would have, but I never did find out why they wanted to work that PARTICULAR product (it stank something fierce) and we discontinued that product long ago, but still have the Muzzies. Maybe they were doing dry runs or chickened out, IDK, but it was just odd, is all.
And the Bush admin was quite adamant that we LOVE on them, too. Not quite as embarrassingly as the way they wanted us to do business with “New Orleans” companies a couple years later because, Katrina, but pretty close…
Fuck China. Good riddance.
DT – I like bacon, but I rarely eat it due to price. I thought it seemed like the price has been rather high and I see why now (swine flu). I only eat it three times a year, when family visits and we have our big breakfast weekends. Other than that, I can eat turkey bacon…yes I said it…for BLT’s (holds up hands to block shoes and other shrapnel).
TRF, thanks for the list. I made a copy and will keep it on the fridge.
Time to switch to Hebrew National!
Koegels if you can get them. Don’t know how far beyond Michigan they’re carried. Damn good hotdogs and ring baloney.
Smithfield is the worst pork I’ve ever had in my entire life.
Wife brought home a slab of their ribs. I told her we don’t buy that chinese shit. She said that’s all the store had. I said then don’t buy it!
I cooked them up anyhow and that mistake was on me.
The ribs were flavorless. Didn’t taste like anything. Our family usually demolishes a slab of ribs for dinner. We each tried one and none of us finished even one rib. It all went in the trash.
Well, crap. I didn’t know they made Nathan’s hot dogs.
^^^ Like Gomer sez: Surprise, surprise, surprise!
Don’t feel bad LadyGun12 – I thought Nathan’s was decent too.
I’m sticking with the local butcher now.
Glad to be a human OMNIVORE.
Canned bean prices went crazy, didn’t buy beans. Now they’re cheap.
Bacon went to $7/lb, ate sausage with my eggs. (never Smithfield products, Chinese ownership was in the news years ago).
It is very easy to make great ribs at home yourself:
1. rub dry spice on them and let them marinate in fridge for 2 hours (there are great flavors in a pkg that McCormick sells for $1)
2. throw them on the grill for 10 mins per side, then
3. put them in the oven, on a cookie sheet wrapped in foil, and bake them for 2 hours @250F.
They are soft as marshmallows, tasty as get out, and cost you less than $3/lb. Plus YOU controlled food safety. The house smells great, and you can do 3-4 racks, and cut them up for freezing and future enjoyment. Just MAKE SURE you have cold beer ready!
Rosie O’Donnell and Michael Moore heaved a great sigh of relief.
They’re both terrified of going near Chinese restaurants, too, and (so I’ve heard) will even cross the street rather than pass one.
izlamo delenda est …